When the Invoice Number Changes the goal is avoiding duplicate payments. This happens frequently. When the Invoice Number Changes you want to ensure the avoiding duplicate payments. Why? Because vendors rarely return duplicate payments, unless the customer identifies the mistake and asks for the money back.

So, the goal is this: don’t make duplicate payments in the first place. Of course, one of the main ways companies look to avoid making duplicate payments is be checking the invoice number. So, when the vendor changes the invoice number this throws a real monkey wrench into that task. Vendors claim they have a good reason for changing the invoice number. They say they do this when sending a second invoice so they can track which invoice gets paid.

The fact that the changing of the invoice number makes it difficult for their vendors whose goal is avoiding duplicate payments doesn’t concern them. Thus, every company needs to put in place procedures to be able to identify invoices when the vendor changes the invoice number.

This is Accounts Payable Sound Bite #37

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Duplicate and erroneous payments are such a big problem that there is a whole industry devoted to identifying and recovering those payments because as those who work in accounts payable know, rarely to vendors return duplicate payments.

They leave the task of identifying duplicate payments to their customers. Now, to be fair, some suppliers will immediately return a duplicate payment or issue a vendor credit. But that does not happen often. So, best practice organizations include in their invoice processing procedures, a check to ensure they are not paying a duplicate invoice, or invoice copy.

Host: Mary Schaeffer (https://www.ap-now.com/)

Guest: Laurent Charpentier (https://www.getyooz.com/)